If you have visited Japan, perhaps you have noticed that people tend to pay attention to where they stand on an escalator: one side is for standing, one side is for walking. Now, if you live in Japan, you’ve surely figured out which side to stand on and which side to walk on…but have you really? While it is common knowledge to most Japanese, it may not be widely known to others that Kansai (especially Osaka) and Kanto have different escalator rules. My first sojourn in Japan was in Tokyo, and I learned to stand on the left and walk on the right; when I came to Osaka for the first time, I was confused to find that people here stand on the right and walk on the left. This tendency persists in the vicinity of and to the west of Osaka, and the Tokyo rules apply all around eastern Japan (as far as I know).

I have asked many people why this occurs, but nobody had any idea, so I searched the interwebs in Japanese and English and found the following theories:

• During the Tokugawa Period, Edo (now Tokyo) was a city of samurai, who preferred to be on the left so they could draw their swords easily. Osaka, on the other hand, was a city of rich merchants, who preferred to be on the right so they could protect their money and valuables. This was, of course, before escalators existed, and most samurai probably didn’t walk around looking for chances to cut people down. Not to mention many other holes in this theory.
• Osaka adopted the “American style” and Tokyo adopted the “British style.” I don’t know about the British, but I know that we have no established customs for using escalators in the United States. Furthermore, Tokyo is the one with more American cultural influence, not Osaka.
• Because Osaka wanted to be different.

The last possibility seems to be the least unlikely one, as Osaka and Tokyo are rivals, culturally and otherwise. But in the end, it’s still a total mystery to me. Additional theories are welcome.

At least you now know how to spot a Tokyoite in Kansai.

BONUS WALKING TIP: In Tokyo, bikes dodge pedestrians. In Osaka, you’d better move or be prepared to die when you hear that bike bell ding.

for three weeks in January 2009, the bombs rained down on Gaza. At the end of Israel’s brutal bombing campaign and ground offensive over 1400 Palestinians had been murdered, including 314 children. In Brighton EDO/MBM manufacture some of the weapons components that devastated so many lives. All over the world thousands of people watched appalled at the carnage on the streets of Gaza. Thousands marched and raged at the destruction of peoples homes and live. On Jan 18th 2010, the anniversary of the final day of Operation Cast Lead, we will come together to remember the people of Gaza. We will not allow those who supported their pain and profited from their suffering go unchallenged. We will not let this genocide be forgotten. On the first anniversary after their deaths we will rise up. We will take to the streets. We will remember. . . .
Find out more at www.smashedo.org.uk

Due to the EDO trial being adjourned until May 17th 2010 the Decommissioners campaign is fast running out of funds. Over the last 10 months we have worked really hard at fundraising to support the prisoners and the defendants with fares to Brighton for court hearings.

Unfortunately people are very tired and we probably won’t be able to put on another gig until January.

Obviously financial support for Elijah Smith is our top priority so we are trying to keep some money in the coffers for this but this leaves nothing for fares, leaflets, publicity etc.

If you can help please send donations to the Decommissioners c/o Box 6, Booty, 82 Colston St., Bristol, BS1 5BB.

We want to take this opportunity to give a big thank you to all of you who have supported us so far.

Cuado estás estudiando las EDOs de cálculo y te encuentras esto en internet, sin duda te partes el doble XDDD

Me gustaría ver algunos exámenes de cálculo de la FIC, me pregunto si me encontraría algo por el estilo…

visto en http://failblog.org/

Glosario:

IVP : initial value problem = problema de valor inicial

EDO: Ecuación diferencial ordinara

Le groupe électro-pop japonais Omadaka aime vraiment le 8-bit!

The Plum Song avec la voix du chanteur folk Akiko Omodaka. Tappei Maki a fait la direction artistique de ce clip hommage à l’époque d’Edo (de 1603 à 1868, parfois appelée période Tokugawa) et principalement à Yoshiwara, le quartier red light de la ville Edo, rebaptisée Tokyo en 1868.

Omodaka avait aussi fait un remix de Kokoriko Bushi, considérée comme la plus ancienne chanson japonaise. Kokoriko est un instrument à cordes.

Ils ont aussi fait un cool vidéo de leur chanson Yosawya-san

via BoingBoing

Bon, la Jugo c’era. Ma il pulmann dove l’hai lasciato?

For the swamplot crew, taken within 500 ft of the intersection of Harrisburg and Wayside.

Fallas Paredes

Tejas

Fish & Shrimp

Fallas Paades

10 months ago, on 18 January 2009, Elijah  Smith A former British Soldier was arrested in Brighton. He had spent the previous night decommissioning the EDO/MBM/ITT factory in Brighton, in an attempt to stop it providing parts for weapons being used by the Israeli army to bomb civilians in Gaza. Nobody was injured or harassed during their action, which was one of property damage. He and his co-defendants did not resist arrest.

Now that the trial has been adjourned until May 17th 2010

Matters are looking worse and worse for Elijah Smith who is still on remand after 10 months in prison.

Yes that’s right – 10 months in prison without trial.

It is possible that he will remain in prison until the end of August, as he has been accused of witness intimidation resulting from a minor comment  made in court to EDO/MBM/ITT Managing Director Paul Hills. His trial for this offence is set to take place in August 2010. This will mean Elijah remaining in gaol until the end of next summer atleast.

We believe that this is a malicious act by the state designed to keep Elijah in prison without trial indefinitely. So we are calling for his immediate release.

There is no excuse for his continued incarceration as Elijah has an acceptable bail address and people who will stand surety for him.

Following the Raytheon roof trial at Yate magistrates one of the Raytheon three was freed when the District Judge found there was no case to answer. The remaining two defendants have been committed to crown court in the Brighton area. This is because the Crown Prosecution want to join the two cases, naturally the defence are contesting this as it will confuse the issue for the jury and because there is no connection between the two cases.

If the defence is successful then the Raytheon hearing will be at Bristol crown court, if not it will be at Brighton crown court and will begin on May 17th along with the main EDO trial.

Elijah is now in Horfield gaol where he’ll remain until Dec 1st when he’ll return to Lewes for a case management hearing along with the other defendants.

They will also reach a decision about the two trials being joined up.

Though he’ll probably return to Lewes gaol there is a possibility he’ll come back to Horfield. Please check the site soon for an update.

In the meantime please write to Elijah Smith c/o Box 6, Booty, 82 Colston St, BS1 5BB.

Free Elijah Smith now

Coffee mug as big as my head holding delectable Gingerbread Latte

Sometimes I forget to practice what I preach, and begin to underestimate the delightful inspiration that can come from simply changing your setting and atmosphere.  Generally when I write, I am standing at my kitchen counter, lounging on the couch in the dead of night, or most popular walking on the treadmill.  But settings get stale, and so too does the inspiration to keep writing, because underneath it all, the mind is bored and seeking entertainment.

It’s a challenge to write in a crowded place such as a coffee shop. There are many contradictions – you have a warm drink at your side which is comforting. But there are other people all around you!  You have a table to yourself in the corner where there are no distractions and all you can do is sit and relax.  But it’s so noisy between the jazzy music and the people talking over it!  The reason, I think, why writers flock to coffee shops to write is because while the logical part of the brain is busy working out mediums in all these contradictions and challenged by the change of scenery, the inspired part of the brain is then left free to let the words flow.

So shall I share a few lines?

A snap of a whip and a shriek of terror, pain, ripped the air apart in flames.  As the smoke and blur dissipated, I pushed the thought from my mind that it was my voice screaming, my body in pain.  “How many of them were there?”  Whip.  Sting.  “How did you murder them?”  Whip.  Cry.  Rage.

I caught my breath, looking down upon myself.  My arms spread to each side in shackles against the wall where there was no escape, no shelter for my everlasting beauty.  Across my bare chest, crossing lines of blood where my skin had been torn apart.  Cross me.  Cross me, I said in my mind.  I can’t do it when I’m bound this way.

“There were eighteen.”  I whispered, lifting my gaze as high as could, holding my head as proud as I could manage.  “I drained the blood of eighteen women who came to me for comfort they couldn’t find elsewhere.”  I wanted to confess what I had done.  It made me powerful.  “What is your name, samurai?  I believe I trained with you once.”

Somewhere, and lightly, I had touched him.  “Takayama.”  He lowered the whip as if his arm would give me rest.

I smirked though every inch of me burned.  “Yes, I trained with you.  I offered you my comfort as well, and you took it.  You took it with such earnest I could have sworn you had fallen in love with me that night.”

A slap to my cheek, I was used to it, it was nothing to me, and I laughed as I spat the blood from my mouth.  “Do you have no defense for yourself?”  The samurai asked me.

“None what so ever.”

Arrest in Edo (now Tokyo) was a brutal ordeal, and this is one scene from Seishin’s arrest.  It would consist of the accused being dragged through the public streets in humiliation, then thrown into a crowded jailhouse and tortured until confession.  After the confession came the purification, and usually, death. Shinto was a rebel religion.

On my way to Temple University, I passed the Sannohashi bridge, and realized that the river was almost completely covered by an elevated freeway. Later I learned the river is called Furukawa (古川), an extension of the Shibuyakawa.

The freeway destroys all the life the river could support, and also diminishes the value of the houses left in its shadows.

This is just one of many Tokyo rivers, canals and historic bridges buried by freeways. A hopeful vision of what could be is seen in the “daylighting” of Seoul’s Cheonggyecheon (Hangul: 청계천) river. As it is now, what remains of the river is a dead space created through poor planning.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Bureau of Construction has a cool interactive map showing every bridge of this river, with photos of each bridge and the views upstream and downstream. And there are photos of this river during Edo, Meiji and contemporary times.

Encouraged by my host Suzuki Makoto sensei at Tokyo University of Agriculture, I recently visited the Edo Gardening Flowers exhibit being held at the Ukiyo-e Ota Memorial Museum of Art until November 26,2009. The exhibit has spectacular colorful wood block prints showing flowers and plants in a variety of urban settings including kimonos, at festivals, commercials nurseries, educational materials, Kabuki actors, and Noh dramas.

The exhibit theme is that the Edo period experienced a “gardening culture” in which a passion for gardens and flowers permeated all social classes, including court nobles, shoguns, feudal lords and the common people. According to the catalogue, “the Japanese people’s passion to flowers surprised the American botanist Robert Fortune as seen in his diary upon his visit to Japan in the late Edo period.”

An interesting comparison is also made between between the widespread practice of Edo gardening and also the interest of common people in wood block prints. It is wonderful to see the use of flowers and plants in both high culture realms and in depictions of everyday life during the Edo period.

Two of my favorite prints are collections of plants used by children to learn the names of flowers. The one below, from the back cover of the exhibit catalog, has the names in hiragana. The exhibit also includes Edo era ceramic plant pots.

Some more images after the jump, and also a list of plants seen in the wood block prints.

Plants and flowers I noted from the November exhibit included “Adonis flower” (fukujuso), potted plum tree, narcissus, Chinese lantern, cherry blossoms, pine bonsai, morning glory, chrysanthemum, clematis, hydrangea, iris, peony, azalea, and rose.

Support the Bristol Aid Convoy to Gaza and the Bristol Gaza Link. Building humanitarian, cultural, educational and social links between Bristol and the people of Gaza.

Since 2004 two managing directors of the company have confirmed the company owns the patents of two essential components used by the Israeli Air Force F16 aircraft called the VER-2.

Open sources and statements by directors of the company prove that the Zero Retention Force Arming Unit and the Ejector Release Unit (ERU) 151 are both used in the VER-2 bomb rack. In 1990,
Flight International reported that the Lucas Western ‘Zero Retention Force Arming Unit’ had ‘already
been fitted to Tornados, Israeli F-16s, Australian F-111s, USAF F-15Es and USN A-6s and A-7s’.  EDO MBM advertised on its Brighton website that it was ‘actively manufacturing’ the EDO MBM Zero Retention Force Arming Unit.

EDO MBM advertised the VER-2 until 2004 when managing director David Jones hastily removed
it because, as he stated under oath ’we were experiencing protests‘ and ‘didn’t want to advertise what we particularly do to outside people who were likely to use it against us’.

EDO MBM’s website continues to advertise the ERU-151 while directors of the company have denied under oath that it has ever been made, sold, exported by them or by anyone else. However during an investigation buy the Information Commissioner in 2008 the UK Government Department for Business (DBIS) admitted that since 2000 the company had applied for arms trade export licenses to export the ERU-151 but refused to disclose dates, or destinations, claiming this might damage the commercial interests of the firm.

In March 2009 both the UK Government and the Information Commissioner confirmed that these license applications had been approved.

In August 2009 the Head of Export Policy Unit at the UK government Export Control Organization admitted that these licenses had not been found in initial 2007 searches of the license documents under a Freedom of Information Act request, or during a further four week internal review, because the company had described the ERU-151 in its applications in an ‘unconventional’ way.

Despite this the Government claim that this does not prove that directors lied in court about the ERU-151 because it is possible the licenses were never used. The Department of Business claim they do not collect information about when military export licenses are actually used.

Currently EDO MBM has 55 arms export licences in force The company may also be describing the military items to be exported in an ‘unconventional’ manner so as to escape the scrutiny of arms export controls. The same tactic may be widespread throughout the arms industry and the thousands of companies that export military components every year without any of the scrutiny that EDO MBM have been placed under.

On 21 April 2009 Foreign Office minister David Miliband admitted in parliament that UK military components had been used by the Israeli Air Force in its attacks on Gaza. ‘British made components for F16s have been exported to the United States where Israel was the ultimate end- user,’ he said. The next day another FCO minister Bill Rammell, Deputy Head of the Counter Pro liferation Department stated before the Committees On Arms Export Control. ‘We believe that there is IDF equipment that was used in Operation Cast Lead, and it almost certainly contained British-supplied components’. In respect of F16s, helicopters and armoured personnel carriers, either on an incorporated or an unincorporated basis, there have been no approvals since Lebanon 2006.’ Under a five year Standard Individual Export Licence (SIEL), if the ERU-151 licence was approved in 2002, then EDO MBM could still have been exporting it directly to Israel up to 2007. If approved around the time of the Lebanon war of 2006, then EDO MBM could still have been making and exporting it to Israel indirectly, via the USA, France or another country, right up to the time of the decommissioning action. It is very probable that such contracts include the regular provision of spares and replacement parts for the equipment that EDO MBM have owned the sole patent to since 1998.

As of August 2009 the UK government refuses to confirm or deny if they hold any information relating to EDO MBM/ITT’s exports to Israel. The Government claim international relations with allied government could be damaged by any such disclosure, and any disclosure of exports to sensitive destinations could lead to the company being targeted by ‘pressure groups’ in further acts of direct action. The question arises. If there is nothing to hide, why do the UK government refuse to provide information. All this evidence leads us to just one highly probable conclusion. EDO MBM are arming Israel.

By the Scintilla Research Project

scintillaresearch@gmail.com

Some Sources:

For three consecutive days Carmel Agrexco in Hayes, Middlesex was blockaded to raise awareness over the continued sale of illegal settlement produce here in the UK. Protestors endured violence and aggression from both Carmel staff and police beyond enduring freezing temperatures and little sleep. In total five protestors were arrested.

On Friday, 6th November, pro-Palestinian activists carried out the first of what was to be three consecutive days of blockading at Carmel Agrexco’s depot in Hayes, Middlesex. The action saw a coalition of students from Kings, UCL, SOAS and Goldsmiths, saw members from Anachists Against the Wall and the International Solidarity Movement as well as other independent activists and individuals come together to implement the blockades.

BRISTOL ABC PRISONER SUPPORT GROUP LETTER WRITING NIGHT

On Wednesday 11 November, 7 to 9pm, at Kebele social centre, 14 Robertson Rd, Easton BS56JY.

An invitation to all those interested in supporting political activists locked up in the UK and abroad, and to all those interested in exploring alternatives to prison. This is an informal gathering with plenty of opportunity to chat and find out more about the ABC, prisoner support and campaigns against prison. We have lists of prisoners here and abroad who welcome letters/solidarity, along with other related info about various campaigns. Hot drinks, snacks, papers, pens and envelopes available, just bring your letter-writing muscles.

For more info see our website http://bristolabc.wordpress.com and also http://www.brightonabc.org.uk/writing.html. Well worth a look for prison info and stats is http://www.againstprisonslavery.org

One of our PR projects will be publicizing the finished work at the end of NanoWrimo. If you have novels, or other books that you need PR for, please contact us.

Here is an update on my Nano story:

Thursday is a great day for me.
I haven’t updated my NaNoWriMo story yet, but I will be working on that tonight.

What happened in 1897 to the Benin Kingdom?
What is the Benin Kingdom?
Ask me for an excerpt of my Nano story…

(mf) Besser als Shogun, schrieb der San Francisco Chronicle als Takashi Matsuokas Romandebüt 2002 in den amerikanischen Handel kam. Nun, wer wäre besser geeignet das zu überprüfen als der legendäre, sagenumwobene, als Shogunexperte weltweit anerkannte PixelRobota?

Ich habe Shogun ungelogen an die zehn Mal gelesen, weil ich a) ein absoluter Japanverrückter bin, b) mich die Samurai seit je her begeistern und c) ich ein großer Bewunderer von James Clavell bin. Clavell hat es in seinem zurecht “Der Roman Japans” untertitelten Werk geschafft, historische Tatsachen mit spannendem thrillerartigem Handlungsverlauf und einem nie dagewesenen (zumindest in nicht-japanischer Literatur) Einblick in die japanische Kultur und Lebensweise, während des Edo-Zeitalters, unter einen Hut bzw. zwischen zwei Buchdeckel zu bringen. Shogun hat uns, wie kein Roman zuvor, Einblick in die japanische Denkweise und sogar sprachliche Finessen verschafft. Matsuokas Erstlingswerk als “besser als Shogun” zu bezeichnen, sah ich deshalb, bevor ich zu lesen begonnen hatte, bestenfalls als anmaßend an.

Die Stunde des Samurai schildert, ähnlich wie der Film The Last Samurai mit Tom Cruise, die Zeit kurz vor dem großen Umbruch, im Zuge dessen Japan sich, unter den modernen Einflüssen der westlichen Welt, radikal gewandelt hat. Obwohl die Japaner ihre Kultur und Gedankenwelt Jahrhunderte lang erfolgreich gegen Einflüsse von außen isoliert hatten, brach mit dem Ende der Satsuma Rebellion 1877 endgültig der westliche Einfluss und dessen Wertvorstellungen über Japan herein und als “antiquiert” geltende Traditionen wie die der Samurai verschwanden in der Versenkung.

Die Handlung von Matsuokas Roman setzt an einem Januarmorgen im Jahr 1861 ein. Drei Amerikaner betreten in der Bucht von Edo (heutiges Tokyo) das fremde, faszinierende Land. Der religiöse Eiferer Cromwel will zusammen mit seiner verlobten Emily eine Mission errichten und heidnische Seelen durch Bekehrung zum Christentum vor der ewigen Verdammnis bewahren. Der Dritte im Bunde ist Matthew Stark, der ganz eigene Pläne verfolgt. Obwohl die als “Barbaren” verschrienen Ausländer auf allgegenwärtige Ablehnung stoßen, finden sie in dem jungen charismatischen Fürsten Genji einen generösen Fürsprecher und Beschützer, der sie mit offenen Armen empfängt. Jedoch hat selbst Genji erbitterte Feinde, die ihm als letzten Nachkommen des Clans der Okumichi nach dem Leben trachten. Und so geraten die drei ahnungslosen Neuankömmlinge zusammen mit ihrem neuen Verbündeten in einen leidenschaftlichen, blutigen Konflikt um Tradition und Macht, um Liebe und Verrat.

Schon im ersten Kapitel vermisse ich die Vielzahl an japanischen Begriffen, wie Rangbezeichnungen und Umgangsformen, die Clavell mir in Shogun so spielerisch wie eindrücklich nähergebracht hatte. Erstaunlicherweise schafft es Matsuoka auch ohne japanische Begriffe vortrefflich die Gegensätze der westlichen Gesellschaft mit der japanischen Gesellschaftsordnung aufzuzeigen. Und auch, wenn ich mich anfangs vielleicht ein wenig dagegen gesträubt hatte, werde ich unweigerlich in die dichte Atmosphäre gezogen und fühle mich Absatz für Absatz mehr ins feudale Japan zurückversetzt. Am Anfang jedes Kapitels begrüßt mich Matsuoka mit einer auf das Folgende passenden Weisheit, die mit Suzume-no-Kumo unterzeichnet ist und aus dem 15. Jahrhundert stammen soll. Erst am Ende offenbart sich, dass es sich hierbei um die niedergeschriebenen Äußerungen des Okumichi Hironobu, Vater von Genji, handelt, dessen Geschichte Genji mit Emiliys Hilfe ins Englische überträgt. Diese Hagakure-ähnlichen, in typisch japanischer Ausdrucksweise verfassten Weisheiten, tragen enorm zu der typischen Japanatmosphäre bei und lassen Kapitel für Kapitel mein Samuraiherz höher schlagen.

Auch nimmt der Roman Kapitel für Kapitel mehr an Fahrt auf und entwickelt sich immer deutlicher zu mehr als nur einem historischen Roman. Matsuoka inszeniert Seite für Seite einen immer rasanter werdenden gut inszenierten Thriller. Mit jedem Detail, das man durch Rückblenden über die handelnden Personen erfährt, fördert Matsuoka gekonnt Sympathien und Antipathien und lässt den Leser Freud und Leid der Figuren nachempfinden. Er springt so gekonnt zwischen einzelnen Zeitabschnitten hin und her, dass ich kaum Glauben kann, dass dies wirklich sein erster Roman ist. Die von den Antagonisten gesponnenen Intrigen, bleiben bis zum Schluss weit verästelt und dennoch nachvollziehbar, weil der Autor haarklein die Motivation für die jeweilige Handlung mitliefert. Auch wenn ich eigentlich undurchsichtige Murakamieske Geschichten bevorzuge, ist es besonders im Falle politischen Ränkespiels, zumindest für mich, eine Genugtuung Vorgehensweisen begreifen zu können – viele Romane und auch Filme ließen mich diesbezüglich allzu oft im Dunkeln tappen.

Mein Fazit:
Als ich das Buch zugeschlagen und zur Seite gelegt habe, musste ich erst einmal Luft holen und das Ganze sacken lassen. Das tue ich nur bei wirklich guten Büchern – Bücher, bei denen man ein Stück weit bereut, dass sie schon zuende sind. Die Stunde des Samurai ist von der ersten bis zur letzten Seite ein Meisterwerk. Warum ich mir eine derartige Bezeichnung erlaube? Das hat zweierlei Gründe. Zum einen möchte ich damit würdigen, dass Takashi Matsuoka mit seinem Debüt als Romancier gleich einen derart “reifen”, komplexen Roman schaffen konnte. Und zum anderen würdige ich damit die Beharrlichkeit und Leidenschaft, mit der sich Matsuoka offensichtlich mit der Vergangenheit und Tradition seines Herkunftslandes auseinandergesetzt hat. Nämlich wurde der kleine Takashi zwar in Japan geboren, wanderte aber bereits im zarten Alter von zwei Jahren mit seinen Eltern nach Amerika aus. Obwohl er dort nach japanischer Tradition erzogen wurde, wuchs er dennoch Quantensprünge von der eigentlichen japanischen Kultur entfernt auf.
Die Stunde des Samurai ist natürlich nicht besser als Shogun, aber auch nicht schlechter. Es ist wie mit Äpfeln und Birnen; sie sehen ähnlich aus, schmecken beide gut, aber sehr verschieden. Da ich auf beides allergisch bin lasse ich das – außerdem hinkt der Vergleich. Shogun ist für mich eines der besten Bücher aller Zeiten und der Schatz meiner Jugend, aber Takashi Matsuokas Die Stunde des Samurai braucht sich nicht dahinter zu verstecken. Ihr solltet sie beide lesen.

[Caricatura publicada en el diario El Mundo el martes 03 de noviembre de 2009]

The Tokugawa Period:  An Overview of the Western Concept

My view of historical scholarship is an attempt to write about the events of the past and as such, it is dependant upon documents from the period(s) being studied.  I have also pointed out that many historians, particularly in the West tend to “cherry-pick” their documents, selecting records that tend to match their preconceived notions of history.  The result is that such written history fails, sometimes miserably, to provide clarity and truth.

I do not exempt Japanese historians from blame in this matter of imbalanced or distorted history, particularly in the portrayal of the Tokugawa Shōgunate and the period of Japanese history that it encompasses, 1603 to 1868; as a period marked by military dictatorship and oppression.  In viewing the Mieji Restoration and the years that followed, one can come to understand how such distortions were possible.  Meiji historians took on the attitude and viewpoint of the era, an obsession with Westernization.  The entire country was lost in all things Western:  Western culture, Western technology, Western politics, even Western scholarship.  What was past, what was “Tokugawa” was cast away as unenlightened and thus, of no value to the “New Japan” and the age of Enlightened Rule.

With the end of World War II, during the Showa Era, historians both in the West and in Japan, looked for reasons for the war.  Ultimately, their collective fingers pointed at the Tokugawa Period, not only as the Japanese dark ages, but as the root cause of the wars that followed the conclusion of that era.  Japanese feudalism was equated with authoritarianism rather than the Confucian concept of a decentralized political system as evidenced in the Zhou Dynasty, a concept idealized by the Tokugawa.  Certainly Japanese feudalism (hōken) was not compatible with liberal Western post-war views, often tainted by not so hidden traces of Marxism, political correctness and the European 18^th century “enlightened” view of Europe’s feudalism as their own dark ages.  These historians thus superimposed their viewpoint over Japanese history, tainting what lay beneath.

Western history, particularly that of Europe is viewed as having three major eras: a classical era, a feudal era, and a modern era.  Japanese history is far more complex, with a myriad of twists and turns, hundreds if not thousands of threads interwoven much the same as a fine tapestry.  To overlay Japanese history with the restricted views of Western scholarship simply does not work:  it is to ignore the depth and character  of Japanese history and culture.

In conclusion, one should be more inclined to view the Tokugawa Period as a forerunner of modern Japanese social and political concepts rather than as the dark depths of tyranny. The Tokugawa brought unity to Japan, for the first time, an actual feeling of nation and country, unique in the Asia and the world, which continues to live in contemporary Japanese values.

Copyright 2009 by H. Tokugawa.

Libro de analisis matematico del ilustre profesor Zapateiro, lo posteo aquí en formato flash para que lo podais ver y/o descargar. De 288 paginas continen el temario básico para cualquier usuario que este cursando una ingenieria.

Indice extractado:

1. Numeros en la computadora
2. Solución ecuaciones no lineales.
3. Soluciones de sistemas de ecuaciones
4. Interpolacion polinomica
5. Derivación e integración numerica
6. Ecuaciones diferenciales ordinarias

Ver y descargar libro de analisis matematico

On Monday 18th January 2010 exactly a year after the attacks on Gaza prompted a citizen decommissioning of EDO MBM a  mass demonstration has been called against the Brighton factory.

If you want to know more about the Smash Edo campaign you can buy the film the police tried to ban, on the verge for £6 including postage from schnews.  Or you can find out more about the ongoing campaign to kick the bomb builders out of Brighton at . . .  www.smashedo.org.uk

To find out more about the citizen decommissioning download the pamphlet ‘If I Had a Hammer’ either to read on-line or  in a  print ready format. Or support them by signing the petition demanding an arms embargo to Israel.

To download full A4 flyer for january 18th click here